Remembering César Chávez
Elisa A. Martínez

“His life was gentle, and the elements so mixed in him that
Nature might stand up and say to all the world, “This was a man.”

— William Shakespeare

César Estrada Chávez was born on March 31, 1927 in Yuma, Arizona.
Years before, his grandfather Cesario Chávez had crossed from México into the United States at El Paso, Texas. Cesario left behind a life of hardship and poverty and hoped that a new beginning in this country would bring a better future for his family.

Cesario’s son, Librado, married Juana Estrada and they had six children. César was the second child and the oldest son. His childhood was happy. Life was good in Arizona. They had a small ranch and all the necessities. They had a good family and good health. They grew crops and raised animals that provided enough food for the family.

In 1937, through a bad business deal, his father lost their home. There was a severe drought in Arizona and in a country recovering from the great depression there were no jobs available. The Chávez family had to migrate to California.

There they joined the thousands of migrant workers who picked the seasonal crops. Life was not good. It became almost unbearable.

The families who followed the crops in California were the lowest of workers and the least paid. Most were of Mexican descent.

The children labored under a burning sun, blisters on their hands, lungs filled with the chemicals sprayed on the grapevines. The short-handled hoe used to thin the lettuce electrified their backs with spasms.

The families had no permanent place to live as they drove from farm to farm to find work. Many lived in their pickup trucks — no running water, no electricity and no bathrooms.

As the Chávez family moved on, César and his brothers and sister attended as many as 35 elementary schools. They were humiliated and punished for speaking Spanish and treated with very little care or professional concern.

In spite of this, César graduated from the eighth grade. But because his father had been injured and he didn’t want his mother to work in the fields, the boy skipped high school to become a farm worker.

In 1946, at age 19, César joined the Navy and served in the Western Pacific. Just before shipping out, he was arrested in the segregated Central California town of Delano for sitting in the “whites only” section of a movie theater. He never forgot the humiliation. but he continued on and was honorably discharged.

After receiving an honorable discharge, he married Helen Fabela whom he had met in the fields where they had worked together many years before. They lived and raised children in a barrio called “Sal si puedes.” Get out if you can. About that time that he began studying the teachings of St. Francis and Mahatma Gandhi.

In 1962 César took the black, sacred bird of the Aztecs and set it in a red background. This became the symbol of the United Farm Workers. With untiring energy, he gathered more and more workers into the union fold. On the 16th of September, 1965, he and the members of the union voted to strike against the Delano area grape growers. Always, he practiced the non-violence beliefs of St. Francis and Gandhi and those of Dr. Martin Luther King.

The following year he organized a march of more than 300 miles from Delano to the state capitol in Sacramento. Much like Mexico’s Miguel Hidalgo, he began with a handful of marchers. With shouts of “Sí se puede,” the flags of Mexico and the United States and the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, he led the workers’ pilgrimage. Like Hidalgo, Chávez picked up more and more supporters as the march continued. The campesinos were offered food and water all along the way until they reached the capitol weeks later, 10,000 strong.

As they marched, grapes withered on their vines. The 10,000 marchers arrived at the state capitol on Easter Sunday with shouts of “Viva la causa” and “Sí se puede”. The announcement was to the multitude that “César Chávez has signed the first contract for the farm workers in American history”.

César Chávez felt hunger in a land of plenty. He was suppressed and persecuted, humiliated and denied his rights in a land of freedom and justice for all, but he used his birthright to fight back and he won.

He was the humblest of beings, always acting not with hate for the oppressors but with love and concern for the oppressed.

In bad health and weak from the fasting, he died in his sleep April 23, 1993 in San Luis, Arizona, a few miles away from his birthplace, Yuma.

His legacy of dignity and respect for the farm worker lives on in those who continue the fight for la causa. ¡Sí se puede!

(Elisa A. Martínez, a speech therapist and educator in El Paso, Texas, is a contributing columnist with Hispanic Link News Service. She may be reached by e-mail at emar37@flash.net.)

© 2005, Hispanic Link News Service.
03/27/05
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